Swimming

We are lucky to live so close to Bebe & Papa's (my parents in Brenham). We love visiting with them, and also enjoy cooling off in their pool!

KatieLynn & Dean are both great little swimmers!

Uncle Harper can throw us really high!!

Hunters

I tried to get a few shots of the kids yesterday, but it can be difficult to get 2 kids to look, smile, stand still, etc. at the same time! I can't imagine how much harder it would be with more kids! Maybe that's a good reason for us to stick with just two. :) SILLY! I thought if I did this, they would relax and give me more natural smiles the next time, it was a good idea, but .... not sure it worked.

The kids (and us!) love to play the deer hunting game! We got this in West Texas at the Lacy Family Christmas a couple of years ago. I think I actually got a bottle of wine, but I traded Laura for the game. (Thanks Laura!) We are so outdated because we don't have a Wii, but that's ok. :)

It is serious business when it's your turn to shoot! The kids have come a long way. At first, Dean would just shoot the does because they were easy to hit, (but that ends your game) and now he can shoot bucks, coyotes, foxes, and more. KatieLynn could usually shoot a few bucks, but now she is pretty competitive with us! At any rate, it's great fun, and Darren likes that they are learning to enjoy hunting at an early age.

Zube Park

We started playing at Zube Park 5 years ago when KatieLynn was only 1year old, and barely big enough to reach anything, and I was pregnant with Dean. They are now pros at everything on the playground! Though right now, we can only go early in the morning because of the heat, the kids still enjoy playing there often! We are lucky that it's only 5 minutes from our house.

It's a Little Dry

Like many of you, we've not received significant rain in MONTHS, and even then we were behind. Our cornfields are not tall, the plants tasseled very early, and the stalks are drying down quite quickly. The kids and I prayed for rain almost constantly after we planted, but in mid-April we changed our prayers to ask God to make our crops grow and be prosperous. We still pray that our harvest is good, but more than that, we trust that our Lord will take care of us through whatever happens.

I think KatieLynn found the biggest ear! It was on the end of the row, and the surrounding seeds never came up. Most of the others we found were about half that size. Dean loves to pick ears!

Galveston Weekend

We had a wonderful and relaxing weekend at Galveston Island this past weekend. My good friend, Catherine and I headed out first thing Friday morning with the 4 kiddos. We ate lunch, and then hung out at the beach for the rest of the day. The kids had an absolute blast splashing, wading, and digging! I apologize for no water pics, but I didn't take my camera to the beach or the pool.

Darren and Jack got in Friday night as we were getting the kids ready for bed. Saturday morning, we went swimming at the pool until lunchtime. Then after lunch we napped, and then headed to Moody Gardens Aquarium. We had fun there, but were disappointed at how expensive it was, especially considering the poor lighting in most of the exhibits... We spent Sunday morning at the beach before we headed home.

It was a fun weekend, and I imagine we'll try to do it again next year. :)
Here's Hadley, KatieLynn, and Dean outside the Aquarium

The kids play in the shark cage.

Kindergarten Graduation

Our sweet angel graduated from Kindergarten last night. So hard to believe that we are now parents of a first grader (or in 2 1/2 months!)! It was a great ceremony! They had a slide show of pictures from the whole year as we waited for the program to start. Here's KatieLynn as she walks in. The students recited Psalm 139, so sweet to hear God's Word spoken by children! Then they sang 2 praise songs. Next, the teachers announced a Character Award for each student; KatieLynn received the Character Award of Attentiveness. Then the specials' (Music, PE, Computer, & Art) teachers gave one award, and KatieLynn was chosen as the recipient of the Outstanding Physical Education Award! After the diplomas were presented, the students, parents, and staff read a Commissioning Litany praying for each student and family.

As we were waiting for the ceremony to start, Dean asked what a diploma was. So I explained it was a piece of paper with words stating you had completed a task, and that he would get one next year at the end of preschool. He looked at Darren and I with one side of his lip curled up, and said, "You mean I have to do this?" I told him it would be 2 years in a row, preschool and kinder! He had his lip curled up like that for at least 5 minutes, as he thought about himself graduating! It's too bad I didn't get a picture of that, but here he is eating celebration cookies. :)

Here's my mother and my nephew, Tice, back at our house. He's a happy little baby, almost 5 months old now!

Fishing at PawPaw's

We went to Darren's grandfather's house to celebrate his 85th birthday. We are so lucky to have him close by! He has a beautiful place, as you can see in the pics! We had a great time visiting with all the family. The food was delicious as usual, and the kids kept having a parade on their riding toys. It was hilarious; it's too bad I didn't get any pictures of that!

The kids are so excited when they get to go fishing. Darren is not really patient enough to be a true fisherman, but he does his best for the kiddos. And, his dad IS patient when it comes to fishing!

Darren & DeanKatieLynn & Papoo
Dean & KatieLynn, Claire & Jonah

Darren, Dean, Emma, KatieLynn, Papoo, & Claire

Dean & Jonah

Happy Birthday KatieLynn!

Our Angel turned 6 years old last week! I can't believe it's already been that long; I guess time flies when you're having fun! Dean and I took Chick-fil-A to KatieLynn's school for lunch (we couldn't find pizza that would be ready in time for us to be to her school by 11am), and we returned at 3:00 to share cupcakes with her whole class. We left school a few minutes early to head to Chuck-E-Cheese. The kids had a ball playing there for more than an hour!

We returned to pick up Darren to eat Mexican food in Waller with Bebe & Papa. Then at the house, we celebrated with brownies and ice cream.

Saturday, we had a little party with KatieLynn's best buds. They got to bob for apples, barrel race with stick horses, break the horseshoe pinata, and of course: eat cake, ice cream, and cheese dip!

Little Miss with her new rolling backpack.